A virtual computing environment may provide mechanisms for provisioning and managing one or more customer virtual data centers (virtual servers). A virtual computing environment may include one or more physical data centers each comprising processor, storage and network infrastructure that may be shared by a plurality of customers. Such a virtual computing environment may include a variety of managed hosting or co-location computing platforms. These platforms may provide virtual resource capabilities for the plurality of customers by employing a virtualization control system that abstracts and granularizes the processor, storage, and network hardware into virtual resources that may be allocated in order to provide each customer with a virtual server that meets that customer's computing needs.
FIG. 1 is a system diagram 100 of a virtual computing environment including a virtualization control system 102. The environment 104 includes storage infrastructure 106, server infrastructure 108, and network infrastructure 110. This infrastructure is controlled and managed by the virtualization control system 102, which may be, for example, the Virtual Center Management Server from VMWare, or any other type of system for virtualizing the storage, server, and network infrastructure resources. The virtualization control system 102 is configured and managed by a system administrator 112, which is typically associated with the owner/operator of the virtual environment 104.
One common use of such a virtual computing environment 104 is for hosting customer web sites. Web browsers 114 access a customer's hosted web site via the Internet 116, which connects to the managed hosting platform 100 via one or more connections 118 to the network infrastructure 110. Customer systems 120 may also access and control the application environment of their virtual resources through an Internet connection and may also have access to a system viewing component of the system 104 that enables the customer to view the configuration of their virtual resources hosted by the managed hosting platform 104.